Let's face it: when it comes to SF movies, television's record is abysmal. Once in a great while, however, even television can surprise you. That was my reaction to The TimeShifters an original movie that premiered October 17 on TBS.
Ambitious TV reporter Tom Merrick is covering a roaring power plant fire from inside the power plant when he spies an odd-looking man in black. The man drops an even odder-looking coin, and Merrick stops to check it out. That same moment, his camera crew goes up in flames.
Four years later, Merrick is hired by a lurid tabloid to research "Disasters of the Century." As he pages through photos of the Titanic, the Hindenburg and Hurricane Hugo, henotices something odd. The same man appears in all the photos -- the same man he saw in the power plant.
Hot on the trail of themystery man, Merrick emplanes for Washington DC to obtain originals of the photos from the Smithsonian to verify their authenticity. As he leafs through his photocopies, his preteen seatmate asks him if he's looking for the man in the photos -- because he happens to be sitting across the plane.
Sure enough, there's the mystery man, a kind of Goth Emo Phillips. He shoves a briefcase into the overhead compartment and heads for the head. Merrick opens the case and finds a brochure advertising ThrillSeekers, a very specialized travel agency. It sets up tours of disasters, and the next one is due to happen any minute -- the crash of the plane Merrick's on.
Merrick uses the mystery man's gun and averts the tragedy, but neither the FBI nor ThrillSeekers is pleased. He's changed history, which is causing the future to change. Two more time travelers are sent back to capture him and determine where the timeline changed. They get him out of the FBI's clutches, and he gets himself out of theirs. In the process, he picks up researcher Liz Winterburn.
With the FBI and theThrillSeekers in hot pursuit, Merrick must prevent a subway crash and a stadium fire in the space of 48 hours. Every change he makes, however, worsens the situation in the future. One result is that the female ThrillSeeker loses her son in a nuclear power meltdown, and suddenly her mission is personal.
Tight pacing and a well-written script ably performed keep this tale of the dangers of paradox from turning into yet another save-the-world movie. Except for the FBI chief, who not only chews the scenery to splinters but embodies every Fed cliche ever written, the characters are acceptably human. There are no noble heroes or hideous villains here, just a lot of ordinary people dealing with extraordinary events. As Merrick, Casper van Dien manages to be passionate without ranting, and Jag's Catherine Bell as Liz Winterern gives her character a wry touch that keeps her from devolving into a sounding board for Merrick. As Cortez, Theresa Saldana manages to evoke sympathy even as she plants the bombs that will slaughter more than 11,000 people.
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